From Being Oppressed To A Business Leader – The Story Of A Rural Girl That Wants To Change The World

It’s hard to see light when everything around you is trying to confine you in darkness. But only the daring ones can have the courage to break these shackles and fight their way to success. What follows is the story of a female engineer who despite the hurdles that came her way, relied upon her will and emerged as victorious. Our lady of the hour goes by the name of Miss. Ayesha Raheem. The following is a narrative of Miss Ayesha’s story who lives in southern Punjab where the illiteracy rate dangles between 60-75%. According to her, she believes in inspiring people but doesn’t really like much of the limelight and prefers working in the community that she is a part of. She is a computer software engineer and currently runs a small IT company that has 10 employees. The company carries out various kinds of projects pertaining to web designing, content creation and security maintenance. Miss Ayesha believes in giving back to the community and her company is already supporting the education of 5 female students.

Welcome to this world that is painted as either a fairy tale world where you can get anything you want or a world that is unfair, bitter and harsh by the media. We are conditioned to see the world as either of the two extremes and I believe that’s where we are wrong. World is not any extreme but a juxtaposition of these two extremes. It’s a paradox, continuously shifting and rocking back and forth between these two extremes. Like a pendulum. Always in motion and never stopping at any one extreme. How do I know that? Well, because that’s what my story is like.

I grew up in a family where there was love and food was always on the table. Well, at least until my mother got diagnosed with cancer and things took a turn to the bitter side. The thing about cancer is, it doesn’t just affect the patient but the people around the patient as well. My father, a happy and patient man, turned into a completely different while my mother’s health went downhill. I, being the eldest of all, had to take care of my mother and my two siblings – had to drop out of college. My mother passed away after 3 years of battling with cancer leaving us broke and heartbroken.

These three years were the one extreme of life for me. I was completely cut off from my education and once an inspiring student, I couldn’t find it in me to pick myself up and start my life again. But you’d be surprised at how inspiration and motivation can find you when you least expect it. So one day, just like that, I decided that I was going to pursue my dream of becoming an engineer and I will not let anything stand in my way anymore. What pushed me to that point? It was the female taxi driver that drove me home that day; a mother of three who had decided to step up, go against all the norms of the society and claim a respectful profession via which she was providing for her family. The taxi driver told me with a smile on her face, “I was always fascinated by cars, so decided to use that fascination to my advantage.” The first ones to stand in my way were my family members, ironic. I was told that I was not capable of starting my education again and I was definitely not capable of achieving my dream of becoming an engineer. That my life was limited to only working odd jobs to provide for my family since my father had given up on everything and I had siblings.

I decided to make my own path. And now, 8 years later, I am an engineer who studied at National University of Sciences and Technology. It wasn’t easy. I had to work hard, sleepless nights and had to work odd jobs to make the ends meet. But I did it. Why? Probably somewhere in my mind, I had already achieved my goal before I began working. That pushed me through any hurdles that came my way. The reason why I have shared my story is to give out the message that nothing is impossible and you can do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, dreams are worth chasing after and we all have the right to do so. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been through hell, it doesn’t matter if you think you’ve become a broken record – set your sights on the goal and work hard and I can guarantee that you’ll achieve it.

Today, I run a small company that isn’t in the Forbes list but is good enough to provide for me and my family needs while helping me save money for future. I have 10 employees working for me who are very happy with my attitude and work ethics. So, I guess the message here is that be an inspiration for yourself! The purpose of writing this is to bring to the attention of our readers about so many women like Ayesha, who despite everything going south, still follow their dreams to ultimately become successful in a male-dominated field or society. Miss Ayesha is a source of inspiration and motivation for many others like her and can be seen helping out students of her community. Lenovo is also celebrating Women’s History Month by honoring 10 notable womenpreneurs, just like Ayesha, who have had successful Kickstarter campaigns and are inspiring women everywhere to make a splash in the world of tech. Check them out on their webpage here

This post was brought to you by Lenovo. The opinions and text are all mine.